MI is still the home of the auto industry and dependent on them for its economic well being. From Gov. Granholm's state of the state:
... we will not concede the automotive industry to any other state or nation.
We are the state that put America on wheels - the state that put the "car" in NASCAR. There is no vision for Michigan's new economy that does not include cars designed, engineered, and made in Michigan. The industry's changing - but we in Michigan cannot - will not - abandon it. And we should not allow our government in Washington to abandon it either.
Because of MI sustained efforts to keep and attract automotive research and development companies,
Detroit automakers, the UAW and their allies on Capitol Hill are launching an all-out blitz over the next few weeks for up to $50 billion in government loans over the next three years -- money the companies say would help them to retool and survive.
MI automakers, despite their own challenges, have invested over $9 billion in their Michigan facilities in the past three years. Over the past eight years, they have agressively sought a partnership with government to invest in the technology of the future that will dramatically curtail auto emissions and eliminate our country's dependence on foreign oil.
Michigan July 2008 Unemployment Rate 8.5%
Change Over Month 0.0
Change Over Year +1.4
While Wall Street believes Ford's $26.6 billion can survive through 2010, it has doubts about GM, even after the automaker's recent $15 billion cash-raising plan. On Wednesday, Lehman Brothers analyst Brian Johnson estimated GM would need at least $7.3 billion to get through 2009; if the economy worsens, that could rise to $12.2 billion.
Michigan Payroll Jobs
July 2008 4,213,000
Change Over Month -5,000
Change Over Year -49,000
One big step for the automakers came this afternoon, when Republican presidential hopeful John McCain said he would support funding some of the loans the Detroit automakers and their suppliers seek. Noting that Congress had approved $25 billion in such loans last year but failed to fund them, McCain said the automakers deserved some of the same support the government had offered to Wall Street.
WARN Notices: MI job losses just due to plant closings/signicant layoffs.
With Democratic rival Barack Obama already supporting such a plan, McCain's support was seen as essential to winning support from Congressional Republicans and the Bush administration
Obama has 7-point lead on McCain in Michigan but the lead is shaky: 31% say they could change minds.
Romney won MI; but like McCain, he owns an abundance of houses.
According to news reports, the former governor of Massachusetts has at least four properties in his portfolio. There is his primary residence in Massachusetts, a ski lodge in Utah, a lake front house in New Hampshire (described by USA Today as "an 11-acre estate valued at more than $10 million on the shores of Lake Winnipesaukee") and a La Jolla beachfront home in California. The latter, according to Politico, is worth $12 million, has five bathrooms, and contains "direct access to sand beach, a quiet cul-de-sac location, spacious oceanfront deck, numerous patio areas with manicured lawns and mature landscaping, lap pool and spa.
Now imagine this ad running in MI and Ohio. How high can you count?
